Until two races ago, Red Bull mastered the art of pit stop like no other team in Formula 1. However, following the Monza and Sochi debacles their numbers have plummeted.
For years, Red Bull has dominated the Formula 1 in the pits thanks to his relentless crew of mechanics. While other teams alternate fast stops with slow ones, the Anglo-Austrian formation achieves a regularity unattainable for the rest. Up to now.
In the last two races, Red bull logged an average of 6,795 and 4,473 seconds per stop respectively. While in Monza the victim was Max Verstappen (11.1 seconds), in Sochi it was Sergio Pérez’s turn (8.96 seconds), both losing valuable time.
Red Bull mean pit stop time in 2021
Recently, the FIA introduced changes to the regulations on pit stops. Initially, this modification was going to be in force from the Hungarian Grand Prix, but was finally postponed until the Belgian Grand Prix. In that test, there was no occasion to verify its influence as a result of the ‘no-race’ and in Zandvoort everything went as usual, but in Monza and Sochi Red Bull has entered a crisis.
Regarding what happened in Italy, Christian Horner stated that «There was a rare human error at our pit stop as a result of the new technical directive, but it is something we must learn from. That slow stop put Max (Verstappen) out of sync from where he should have been on the track.
The Sochi, however, was not related to the new regulations, according to the director of Red Bull Racing. “It took us a while to get the tire off and then the clutch made the rear wheel spin, which made it take longer to reattach. It was not because of that technical guideline.
The data
After 15 Grands Prix, Red Bull still has nine of the 10 fastest pit stops of the season (the best in 1.88 seconds) and only Aston Martin prevented the plenary session with the stop of Lance Stroll in Portugal (2.08 seconds).
However, the last two disasters have caused what really matters, consistency throughout the season, to be blown up as far as the Anglo-Austrian team is concerned.
MORE EFFICIENT TEAMS IN BOXES in 2021
Points awarded to the authors of the ten fastest stops in each race, using the same championship scoring system (25-18-15-12-10-8-6-4-2-1). Average calculated over time of all pit stops made by each team. Source: DHL InMotion.
At this time, Williams is the most effective team with an average of 2,837 seconds per stopclosely followed by Aston Martin (2,843 seconds), Mercedes (2,887 seconds) and Alpine (2,935 seconds).
Instead, Red Bull has fallen to sixth place with an average of 3.014 seconds per stop. For reference, in 2020 Red Bull finished the season with an average of 2,569 seconds per stop, taking more than half a second for each of them to its main opponent, Renault. In 2019, that average was equally spectacular: 2,550 seconds per stop.
Will Red Bull recover from this striking slump? Foul will make him in his intense dispute for the world title with Mercedes.